HYDERABAD: The attempt to transfer the deputy superintendent of police (DSP), who is in charge of Sathya Sai Baba’s security at Prasanthi Nilayam in Puttaparthi, is snowballing into a controversy.

Members of the Sathya Sai Central Trust, which supervises the other services rendered by Baba, are upset that animal husbandry minister Nimmala Kistappa has used his clout to get DSP N Venkata Reddy transferred.

The minister, it is said, persuaded home minister T Devender Goud to move Venkat Reddy out of Puttaparthi to settle a personal score with the officer.

However, Trust members consider this as an interference in the security affairs of Puttaparthi and demanded that Reddy be retained in his post.

The minister reportedly nursed a grouse against Venkata Reddy as the latter does not make courtesy calls on Kistappa whenever he visits Anantapur.

The minister’s efforts to get the officer transferred failed when H J Dora was director-general of police. But after Dora’s exit, Kistappa, with the collaboration of an aide of the home minister, finally managed to get Venkata Reddy transferred.

Angered over the transfer, Trust members took the matter to chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu. The chief minister, in turn instructed his officials to look into the matter.

After the chief minister’s interference, Kistappa agreed for retention of Venkata Reddy at Puttaparthi, but got his wings clipped. The jurisdiction of the sub-divisional police office at Puttaparthi encompasses six adjoining villages having a superspeciality hospital and the quarters of Sai Baba devotees working in the institutions run by the Sathya Sai Central Trust.

But the minister managed to get the sub-divisional police office disbanded leaving the deputy superintendent of police to just look after the security affairs at Puttaparthi.

The Sathya Sai Central Trust members made a representation to the chief minister requesting him to restore the sub-divisional police office at Puttaparthi in view of the law and order problems outside the Prashanti Nilayam.

They also complained to the chief minister that Devender Goud’s aide who collaborated with Kistappa also nursed a grouse against Venkata Reddy. The home minister’s aide reportedly wanted admissions in schools run by the Sathya Sai Central Trust, a favour the deputy superintendent of police could not grant.

Kistappa reportedly used the services of this aggrieved officer to clip the wings of Venkata Reddy. The Trust members are disappointed that despite the chief minister’s orders to restore to the DSP the powers of his office, Kistappa has managed to have his way.